E-Mail Security or Content Security?

E-Mail Security or Content Security?
In an era of data breaches
and insider leaks, a conversation about e-mail security is about more than just
spam and malware-it is also about DLP (data leak prevention). In
fact, the focus of enterprises has shifted more toward overall content
security, said John Thielens, vice president of technology at Tumbleweed
Communications.

DLP products offer a more
comprehensive approach, with their content monitoring, data classification and
policy enforcement capabilities.
The DLP market saw a number of
acquisitions last year, and the technology is making its way into the
enterprise market. However, many companies have been slow to deploy the
technology, which helps to prevent the loss of sensitive data by stopping, for
example, an e-mail including a Social Security number from crossing the mail
gateway.
Click here for 10 things you should know about spam.
In the report released last
November "Extending Intellectual Property Protection Beyond the Firewall,"
analysts from Enterprise Strategy Group found that only 17 percent of the 109
respondents were using network-based DLP appliances at their
organizations.
The ability to block
classified data before it leaks out via e-mail can be a key element in e-mail
security. But before investing in DLP, companies should first
understand what their sensitive data is and what their business needs are,
according to analysts. The risk of focusing too much on a block-and-allow
approach is that employees-ultimately the last line of defense in security-will
simply circumvent whatever protections are put in place, Thielens said.
"Think of the content
management problem as a bubble in a long balloon animal. If you squeeze the
controls around that bubble, the air just moves to the left, to the right,"
he said. "If you lock down e-mail, people start using files and Web and
instant messaging. If you take this blocking mentality, you're always in
catch-up mode.
"Instead, think about
enablement, and tell people, -We're going to put some defensive controls that
block the wrong ways of doing things in place, but we're also going to give you
ways where you know how to do business with your content.'"